Previously, the STD had been treatable by both cefixime and
ceftriaxone, but new studies suggest that the disease is becoming
increasingly immune to cefixime — just like it did with
penicillin, ampicillin, tetracycline and doxycycline and a host
of other new drugs. The aim is to stop over-prescribing cefixime
before the drug becomes completely resistant.

Why have these drugs stopped working? The CDC cited the "ability
of Neisseria gonorrhea to develop antimicrobial
resistance" as the key reasoning behind the new rules. To put it
simply, the drug is unusually good at beating the best medicines
we throw at it.

"If this was a person, this person would be incredibly
creative," aid Jonathan Zenilman, of John Hopkins
told NPR. "The bug has an incredible ability to adapt and
just develop new mechanisms of resisting the impact of these
drugs."

Worse still, pharmaceutical companies do not invest heavily in
antibiotics as they are not profitable, Bloomberg reports.

Gonorrhea may be symptomless, but can cause serious problems if
left untreated — even death. It is the second most-common
sexually transmitted disease, behind chlamydia, with 106 million
new cases of the disease annually.